Marshallese Deportations Increasing

Courtesy Photo: Riem Simon
Marshallese residents of Springdale gather at the federal detention center in Oakdale, La., earlier this year where they were being held for deportation proceedings after being convicted of crimes. Standing: Riem Simon, left, Fred John, Jamie Langrus, James Annam and Dewey Gold. Kneeling: Dennis Jinna. John remains in Oakdale. Simon, Langrus, Annam and Jinna were deported. Gold was released and returned to Springdale.

A knock on the door. An arrest. Incarceration hundreds of miles from home where no one speaks your language but fellow inmates. Marshallese people living in Springdale who have been convicted of a crime face this predicament in increasing numbers, said Carmen Chong Gum, the Marshallese consulate general in Springdale.

They get an opportunity to have a better life here in the US with extra benefits ( more than the average US citizen ) and they blow it by getting busted for crimes. Deportation must sound better than being locked up in a cage with a bunch of killers and rapist. TOO bad we can't deport all the aliens who commit felonys. Then the prisons wouldn't be so crowded and more jobs for the honest hard working people. IF they have an opportunity to better themselves by coming to the US then they should obey the laws .

Tumblebug you can have every last one of my Marshallese neighbors. I have only had limied exposure to thes people before moving to Arkansas and if I had the resourses I would send them all back to the Marshal Islands and build them fine schools for their children to keep them there. From what I have seen they consistantly endanger their children through lack of supervision and disipline. I strongly suspect no dog or cat is safe from winding up in some of my neighbors stew pots. They have had a lot of dogs come in but the dogs never come back out and I hear no barking. These two issues are the tip of what I feel sure is a huge iceburg. In my experience they contribute nothing that is good to our society.